People with hidden alcoholic problems are often capable of hiding their substance abuse from family and friends. They have a lot to lose if the addiction is discovered, including relationships. To avoid such fallout, they often work quite hard to conceal their issues with alcohol and may even believe that their problem isn’t as big as it is, as they are able to keep family from finding out about their heavy drinking.
How Alcoholic Problems Are Often Hidden From Family
People with hidden alcoholic problems find many ways to hide drinking from others close to them. Some of those methods include:
- Telling family members that they’re working late in order to go out drinking or have alone time to consume alcohol
- Scheming to find money for support of their drinking habit, including borrowing from family or friends, taking out payday loans, diverting funds from family accounts, hiding work bonuses or otherwise being dishonest about money
- Blaming others for their behaviors and hidden alcoholic activities to keep accusations at bay and make the topic an unapproachable one
- Hiding alcohol throughout their living and work spaces
- Driving long distances to obtain alcohol outside of neighborhoods where they are known
- Developing non-family social relationships with other people who have bigger addiction problems, to direct attention away from themselves
What to Do When Hidden Alcoholic Problems Are Discovered
If you suspect a person you love of being a hidden alcoholic, hiding the depth and breadth of his or her alcohol use, it’s important to not continue enabling the problem through avoidance of the subject. It’s critical that people who are aware of addiction act quickly to help the loved one get into recovery.
You need to understand that addiction often drives people to do underhanded things that are out of character. But this doesn’t make loved ones bad people. They are merely doing what those who are addicted are known to do, going to any length necessary to hold their lives together despite struggling with a legitimate disease.
Getting Help for Your Family Member at Recovery In Motion
In Tucson, Arizona, Recovery In Motion provides long-term, evidence-based treatment for people suffering with addiction to alcohol and drugs. Your loved one can gain the help he or she needs at Recovery In Motion. Treatment may include diagnosis of a co-occurring condition that led to heavy use of alcohol, in the first place. With treatment, you can get your whole family back on track for a bright future free of substance abuse.
It’s time to stop hiding and confront an alcohol problem head-on, before it’s too late. Call Recovery In Motion now at (866) 418-1070 to get help for your family member with alcoholic problems.
